NZR WJ class

The NZR WJ class was a class of one steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for service on New Zealand's private Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR). She acquired the WJ classification when the publicly owned New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) purchased the WMR and its locomotive fleet in 1908.[2]

NZR WJ class
The former WMR second No. 3 locomotive as NZR 466, WJ class. Godber Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.[1]
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
BuilderBaldwin Locomotive Works
Serial number23596
Build date1904
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 • Whyte2-8-4T
Gauge3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Wheel diameter43 in (1.092 m)
Adhesive weight38.0 long tons (38.6 t; 42.6 short tons)
Loco weight53.6 long tons (54.5 t; 60.0 short tons)
Fuel typeCoal
Firebox:
 • Firegrate area		16.7 sq ft (1.55 m2)
Boiler pressure200 psi (1,379 kPa)
Heating surface1,080 sq ft (100 m2)
Cylinders2
Cylinder size17 in × 20 in (432 mm × 508 mm)
Performance figures
Tractive effort21,510 lbf (95.7 kN)
Career
OperatorsWellington and Manawatu Railway, New Zealand Government Railways
Number in class1
NumbersWMR 3 (1904),
NZR 466
LocaleWellington - Johnsonville section
Retired31 March 1928
DispositionWithdrawn

Introduction

The locomotive entered service in July 1904 with WMR road No. 3 (reused). She was the first WMR locomotive to have piston valves.[3]

A massive 2-8-4T tank engine, known as Jumbo, she was based at Wellington for all her life. She was acquired for banking duty out of Wellington up the Ngaio bank to Johnsonville, which had long grades of 1 in 40 up to Crofton (Ngaio) and Khandallah and tunnels No 1 to 5.[4]

She had worked 67,907 miles by 29 February 1908.[5] Drivers and firemen alike, it has been written, hated Jumbo, but all agreed that for sheer brute strength this engine took a lot of beating. Like all Baldwin locomotives, the locomotive had cast frames of the bar type. In this case, they gave considerable trouble, for they persistently broke immediately behind the smokebox saddle.[2]

When taken into the NZR fleet in 1908, she was allocated her own class and NZR No. 466. With a tendency for breaking the bar frames on the heavy banking duty, she saw little service after 1920.

Withdrawal

The locomotive was withdrawn in 1927 and written off on 31 March 1928.[6] The boiler was sent to the Taumarunui locomotive depot for use as a washout boiler.[7]

References
  1. "The former WMR second No. 3 locomotive as NZR 466, WJ class". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  2. Palmer & Stewart 1965, p. 97.
  3. Hoy 1972, p. 69.
  4. Cassells 1994, pp. 110,155,166.
  5. Cassells 1994, p. 155.
  6. Lloyd 1974, p. 45.
  7. Palmer & Stewart 1965, p. 96.

Bibliography
  • Cassells, Ken (1994). Uncommon Carrier: The History of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, 1882-1908. New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. ISBN 0-908573-63-4.
  • Hoy, Douglas (1972). West of the Tararuas: An Illustrated History of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Co. Dunedin: Southern Press.
  • Lloyd, W. G. (1974). Register of New Zealand Railways Steam Locomotives 1863-1971 (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-9582072-1-6.
  • McGavin, T. A. The Manawatu Line (Wellington NZRLS, 1958, 2nd edn 1982) ISBN 0-908573-35-9
  • Palmer, A. N.; Stewart, W. W. (1965). Cavalcade of New Zealand Locomotives. Wellington: A H. & A W. Reed. ISBN 978-0-207-94500-7.
  • Stewart, W. W. (1974). When Steam was King. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed Ltd. ISBN 978-0-589-00382-1.
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